


Sing

by titania522



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Comfort, Gen, Mockingjay, Post Mockingjay, Prim - Freeform, Tumblr Prompt, everlark, everlark fanfiction, growing together, katniss in mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-09
Updated: 2015-06-09
Packaged: 2018-04-03 16:45:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4107906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/titania522/pseuds/titania522
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Healing starts with the smallest things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sing

**Author's Note:**

> Everlark Drabble prompt by liveloveanddance: Everlark going to a concert. Anyway I want. Be careful what you ask for :). A million thanks to bubblegum1425 and katnissdoesnotfollowback for reading. Canon Compliant.

 

“Go without me,” Katniss snapped, crumbling the flyer Peeta had handed her and launching it in the direction of the rubbish bin.  It landed instead on the floor.  She was immediately ashamed of her tone and harsh reaction but she was too proud and filled with a sense of her own correctness to apologize right away. Instead, Katniss turned around to lean against the kitchen counter, wanting with all her heart to make him happy and finding herself completely unable to do so.

Peeta gave an audible sigh as he bent to pick up the discarded announcement of the first annual District 12 Summer Festival. Her back was turned but she sensed his frustration and the way he struggled to control himself.

"I'll stay with you.  We can cook and watch a show. .."

"You're not obligated to stay with me.  You're not my babysitter." She turned back to him when she said this and caught the flicker of hurt as it clouded his blue eyes.  She wanted to tell him he's more than a babysitter, more than accidental company. But like everything else that could be a benefit to someone else, she swallowed it.  Causing suffering is what she did best.  

Peeta furrowed his eyebrows, still staring at the paper.  "You're right. I'm not your babysitter." He placed the wad in the bin and turned to leave, getting as far as the kitchen door before pausing.  "She would have been happy to hear you sing again." he said with unbearable gentleness before leaving without another word. He paused to glance towards the primrose bushes, the air fragrant with their new blossoms and Katniss knew precisely why he looked at them.  It made sense.  Even now that Prim was no longer there, most of Katniss' decisions still revolved around her.  

When Katniss was sure he was gone, she laid on the sofa, curled in a ball, waiting for the day to end as she had often done those first three months after she'd returned to District 12. _Sun up.  Sun down.  Sun up. Sun down. Over and over and over_.  Nights had been long and filled with spirits of the dead from which waking brought no relief. But the sun persisted in rising and one day, so had she.  Peeta returned and she'd found the way to move again.

Now the primrose bushes were in bloom, fresh and young, as she had been. It made Katniss' heart ache to see how well Peeta knew her.  But it ripped at her soul even more that Prim was gone and there was not enough music in the world to drown out that truth.

Yet after all of that, he wanted her to sing.

Katniss scoffed at him in her heart.

Day turned to twilight when Katniss heard the slow unfurling of a folk ballad sneak its way across the main road of Victor’s Village.  Fingers of fiddle music crept into her half-sleeping consciousness like a caress. It was soft like her father’s touch when he’d woken her before dawn to go hunting. Gentle as her mother's breath that had once tickled her cheek when she’d carried Katniss as a toddler. Implacable as Prim’s arms around her waist when Katniss had volunteered as tribute in her place.

Katniss shot up from her spot on the sofa. _Why that? Why the Reaping?_ Of all the things to remember, _why that?_

Her breath came in gasps and the tears burst out of her. _Why that_?

The music became more insistent, the tempo livelier as Katniss became angrier. It felt good to feel more like herself and rage was an emotion she recognized.

Prim loved flowers. She dressed in pink and braided ribbons in her hair and dresses. She tucked bits of pine branches with waxy, bright red berries in the rags she found around the house, out of waste, making something beautiful. When she touched a wounded Lady, her beloved goat, there was healing.  When she made Buttercup love her, she’d tamed that mangy beast like she'd tamed her older, savage sister. _There_ was her sister. _Not_ in the Reaping, the Revolutions or the bombs.  She didn’t know that dead girl at all.

She was in the lullabies Katniss had sung to her at night.  The songs of comfort her father had sung were gifts he'd left to Prim through her older sister.  Katniss found her little duck there.

Prim was hers and she would not remember her with the Capitol’s taint.  

Peeta had understood that.  Damn him for knowing her so well.

**xxxxx**

Katniss found him sitting at a bench, sipping a local, homemade ale, made from wild barley, typical of District 12.  Delly and Thom sat across from him, all of their attention riveted on the fiddler and the handful of residents milling about. The center had been cleared and somewhat rebuilt but the town had a long way to go. They all had a long way to go.

Katniss snuck up on them on silent feet. Delly was startled, drawing Thom's attention away from the fiddler. But Peeta continued to sip his ale, giving Katniss a half smile before pushing his still icy mug towards her.

“I won’t sing,” she said resolutely before taking a draught of the cool drink, losing herself in its icy comfort against the balmy night air.

Peeta shrugged, wiping a droplet of foam from the corner of Katniss’ lips with his finger.  “I know. But one day you will.” He took the cup from her and aligned her lip imprint with his before taking a lingering draught of his own. “Let’s just listen to the music for now.”

Katniss nodded before finally turning to acknowledge Delly and Thom, exchanging a few polite words and tidbits of town gossip as the music played.  

She then rested her head against Peeta’s shoulder and spent the rest of night humming the songs of District 12 under her breath.

 

 


End file.
